Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has paid tribute to Kilrea Dental Surgery for treating almost 4,000 people through Northern Ireland’s year-old Dental Access Scheme (DAS). Visiting the newly expanded four-chair practice with Chief Dental Officer Professor Caroline Lappin, the Minister described the surgery as “a remarkable example” of how targeted support can bring unregistered and urgent cases back into Health Service care.
The stop-gap scheme matters because many people in Northern Ireland still struggle to find an NHS dentist. While Kilrea’s only practice has now signed up more than 8,000 registered patients, the nearest alternatives remain 10–15 miles away in Coleraine or Garvagh. The Department of Health hopes that initiatives like DAS, backed by a £7 million investment package announced in May 2025, will stabilise services and encourage new child registrations across the region.
How the scheme works in Kilrea and beyond
• Launched: 1 August 2024 (replacing the Pilot for Unregistered Patients and Asylum Seekers).
• Patients treated to 30 Sept 2025: 30,533 across 37 practices; 3,817 at Kilrea alone.
• Tariffs: £150 per ‘urgent’ patient; £100 per ‘pressing’ patient; £50 supplement for asylum seekers and refugees.
During the visit, practice owner Charlie Kielt told officials that DAS funding helped him expand from one to four surgeries, hire additional clinicians and see patients “who would otherwise have presented at A&E or gone without treatment”. Minister Nesbitt added: “General Dental Services play a crucial role in reducing wider Health Service pressures. Many DAS patients have since become registered patients — a positive outcome that strengthens local provision.”
Outside Kilrea, participation is spread across Trust areas (Belfast 10, Northern 8, Southern 9, South Eastern 6, Western 4). A cost-of-service review has been commissioned to inform longer-term reform of how NHS dentistry is funded and remunerated.
Details that remain hazy
• The Department has not said how long DAS will run or what happens when the £7 million pot is exhausted.
• It is unclear whether the per-patient tariffs fully cover costs, especially for complex urgent cases.
• No timeline has been published for the promised cost-of-service review; stakeholders have yet to see its terms of reference.
• The announcement does not specify provisions for out-of-hours or weekend cover, which many rural patients still lack.
Wider pressures in Northern Ireland dentistry
DAS is one piece of a larger puzzle. According to a British Dental Association NI survey (2024), 88 per cent of NHS practices were unable to take on new adult patients. Northern Ireland also records the UK’s highest rate of decayed, missing or filled teeth among 12-year-olds (Public Health England, 2023). Without broader contract reform, experts warn that short-term access schemes may struggle to reverse the trend.
Workforce concerns persist too. Stormont’s Health Committee heard earlier this year that almost a quarter of High Street dentists are over 55, while younger associates increasingly opt for private practice. Clearer signals on remuneration, career progression and rural incentives could determine whether DAS converts initial goodwill into lasting capacity.
Questions worth asking
- How will the forthcoming cost-of-service review measure whether the current £100–£150 tariffs cover real practice costs?
- What criteria will decide which additional practices can join DAS, especially in rural or high-need urban areas?
- Will the £7 million allocation be enough to maintain current activity levels beyond the current financial year?
- How will the Department monitor treatment outcomes for asylum seekers and refugees, who attract a specific supplement?
- What steps are being taken to address long-term workforce shortages, beyond the immediate access scheme?
What happens next
DAS has given Kilrea residents quicker relief from toothache and, in some cases, a new NHS dentist for the long haul. Yet the scheme’s future — and the broader fate of publicly funded dentistry — hinges on forthcoming decisions about funding, workforce, and contract reform. Patients, practitioners and policymakers alike will watch for publication of the cost-of-service review and any announcement on extending or embedding DAS beyond its pilot phase.